The present invention relates generally to integrated propulsion and steerage of seagoing vessels or the like.
Currently, seagoing vessels having watertight hulls are propelled by gear driven propellers. Maneuvering of such vessels involves use of separate steering facilities such as rudders externally of the hull and reversible pitch propellers on surface ships or separate reverse turbines in submarines. The latter referred to facilities associated with propulsion and steerage operations for marine vessels not only involve expensive equipment subject to costly dry-dock repair and/or maintenance, but are responsible for high fuel consumption, difficulties in maneuvering and create noise and vibration problems.
In an attempt to solve some of the problems associated with the foregoing facilities, such as fuel consumption and those problems associated with use of reversible pitch propellers, integrated electrical drive systems have been proposed as disclosed for example in a related prior copending application Ser. No. 08/700,750 filed Aug. 16, 1996, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,684,690, with respect to which the present application is a continuation-in-part. However, little improvement in maneuverability or noise generation is thereby achieved.
It is therefore an important object of the present invention to provide an arrangement of integrated propulsion and steerage for marine vessels so as to improve maneuverability while avoiding the problems heretofore experienced such as high fuel consumption, costly repair and noise generation.